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Bielsa bursts into Athletic's electoral campaign

2022-06-21T10:41:51.667Z


Iñaki Arechabaleta, one of the three candidates for the presidency, has the Argentine as a substitute for Marcelino


The candidate for the presidency of Athletic Club, Iñaki Arechabaleta, in the announcement this Monday of Marcelo Bielsa as his proposal as coach. Javier Zorrilla (EFE)

At the end of June 2011, Josu Urrutia presented Marcelo Bielsa (Rosario, Argentina, 66 years old) before Bilbao society.

The former Athletic footballer was one of the candidates for the presidency.

He tried twice.

At first the sound of the videoconference failed;

the second time, it worked.

When the coach was a minute into the exposition, he apologized.

He had to go to the bathroom.

He left the camera taking pictures of an empty chair and after a while he returned.

Already relieved, for more than an hour and a half he unraveled his ideas.

Urrutia won those elections with Bielsa as a perch;

little less than two years later, he breaks the communication between president and coach, despite the chants of "Bielsa, stay!"

from the stands of San Mamés on the day of the farewell to the old field, he left Bilbao.

He now he wants to return.

The first year of Bielsa was engraved in Iñaki Arechabaleta's memory.

The director of the Vocento group followed where he could Athletic that amazed Europe.

The day of the historic victory at Old Trafford against Ferguson's United (2-3), he had a business meeting in Malaga.

He managed to get a seat on a flight for retirees returning to Manchester after their holidays, and arrived in the English city just three hours before the match.

That season, Athletic lost the finals of the Europa League and the Copa del Rey.

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Bielsa, a 'Loco' in the cradle of football

So when he decided to lead one of the three candidacies that are running for the Athletic elections on Friday, he sought contact with Bielsa.

It was his number one option, that of the coach, "which led us to live the best season of this century", in his words.

Through the club's former sports director, José Mari Amorrortu, one of Bielsa's closest allies at Athletic, they got in touch.

The coach had just been fired from Leeds, the club to which he was promoted to the Premier, and where he stayed for almost four seasons.

"Let me study it," Bielsa responded to Arechabaleta's proposal.

After viewing the 45 matches of Athletic last season, the 38 of Bilbao Athletic and several more of the youth and Basconia –the third team–;

After reviewing the 380 matches of the last League and analyzing, player by player, the components of the squad, and that of the rest of the teams in the championship, "except for those that were relegated and the third that was promoted from Second", he reached a conclusion that exposed who could be its new president: “The team plays well, I like it, and the best thing for Athletic would be the continuity of Marcelino, because his project has room for improvement”.

But Marcelino decided not to continue, in the midst of the electoral maelstrom, and then Bielsa accepted the return, which only depends on the polls.

The Argentine assures that when he arrived in Bilbao for the first time he found himself "with a great squad that Caparrós had built", but that the current one is broader and perhaps better accommodates his ideas.

There are two players on the squad, Muniain and De Marcos, who were regulars with him, and another Balenziaga, whom he sent on loan to Valladolid.

But he says he has changed.

Bielsa pointed out in his presentation through a video of one hour and ten minutes, that his original project as a coach was reflected in his years as a coach at Newell's old Boys, Atlas de Guadalajara, América, Vélez Sarsfield and his brief tenure for Spanish.

"From 1990 to 1998, I used the original method that I had built during my time at Newell's."

He points out that there was a second stage, “with the Argentine team, the Chilean team and Athletic”, in which he added variants in tactical, positional and preparation aspects.

But, “my time at Athletic, which was the first European team I managed fully, made me start to think that there were some things that needed to be polished and perfected to improve the method of preparing the players”.

He refers to shorter training sessions, better managing the squad,

to not exhaust the forces of the soccer players before time.

The defects that were attributed to him in his second season in Bilbao, where his memory survives.

He has changed, says Bielsa, but madness is beginning to settle in Bilbao, and his mentor, Arechabaleta, is positioned as the favorite against Jon Uriarte and Ricardo Barkala, the other candidates for Ibaigane's chair.

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Source: elparis

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